Very Strong and Bitter Tea

I have been buying my tea from Adagio for the past year and great results. Recently I purchased some English and Irish Breakfast tea from Special Teas. The first thing I noticed was that it was broken into very small pieces, unlike the adagio teas. When I made the teas they were very strong and almost bitter tasting even though I infused them only 3 -3 1/2 minutes. The Irish breakfast tea actually gave me an upset stomach and I could feel a big rush of caffene and felt a bit jittery. It was not a good experience and needless to say, I will be sticking with Adagio from now on. The grass is not always greener elsewhere.

Well that can happen easily with smaller pieces. You need to not go over 3 mins and reduce the amount of tea. Remember you are going by weight and there is more weight in the smaller broken pieces. There is also something to be said for sticking with what you like.

3 - 3 1/2 mins is an awful long time in my opinion unless you are going for one big infusion. Even then for some teas it may be too much, some blacks just have so much to give and very fast. Do you brew just for one infusion or multiple? From your comments it sounds like you over brewed. Don't give up on those teas yet, try shorter time/ less tea / more water before you throw in the towel. Maybe start off weak like 1 min or so, then tweak and adjust from there.

shardy53 wrote:I will be sticking with Adagio from now on.

shardy53 wrote:The grass is not always greener elsewhere.

I wouldn't let this one mishap push you away from exploring what other vendors have to offer once in a while. There is a lot of great tasting stuff out there!

If you still don't like this tea you can always give it to me I will find a home for it !

I started using 3 tsp for four cups and infusing just three mins. and it was much better but it still had a slight bitter aftertaste. I will not buy the Special Teas English and Irish Breakfast teas again. Now on the other hand the Special Teas High Grown English is really good and no bitterness at all. I will rebuy that one, but for the rest of my tea consumption I wll stick to Adagio.

The two teas that I didnt like both look to me like fannings instead of BOP.

As others suggested use less leaf for less time and play around with brewing and if you still don't like it then maybe you just don't like this tea. Some times a tea just isn't your flavor. Im not a big fan of irish or english breakfast teas for just that reason. Don't let this stop you from using other venders. Tea varies from season to season, even the best venders can have an amazing tea one year and the next could be less quality.

Actually, Irish and English Breakfast teas are my daily morning teas. Its the brand that I bought that I don't like. I don't think that the English tea has any keemun in it either. I will just finnish what I have and stick with the Adagio tea from now on. I believe that the tea that I have now is fannings that belong in tea bags.

churng wrote:3 - 3 1/2 mins is an awful long time in my opinion unless you are going for one big infusion. Even then for some teas it may be too much, some blacks just have so much to give and very fast. Do you brew just for one infusion or multiple? From your comments it sounds like you over brewed. Don't give up on those teas yet, try shorter time/ less tea / more water before you throw in the towel. Maybe start off weak like 1 min or so, then tweak and adjust from there. ...

I'm very new to tea drinking. I (currently) use Tazo Organic Chai teabags and steep for 5 minutes. I use the teabag twice before I toss it. The second go-around is much less bold than the first use of the bag, which I would think is to be expected. Am I doing it wrong by stepping 5 minutes? I don't think the tea is bitter at all, but I do add some splenda. Actually I've only ever tried two 3 other teas, they were Celestial Seasonings Chai, Stash Orange Spice and another brand apple spice. All steeped for 5 minutes.

I personally find Chai teas can handle a longer brewing. If you are going to be adding cream and a sweetener, then you want it a bit stronger too. Perhaps try cutting back on the steep time for your first brewing and see how that goes. You'll get a stronger 2nd steeping too.

I tried steeping it for 3 minutes and it was okay. Not great. The flavors were quite subdued compared to steeping for 5 minutes. I guess I like a stronger tasting tea. Dad just brought home Twinings English Breakfast decaf tea. I'll give that a go, I'm overcaffeinating myself (because I'm drinking so darned much of it) and the chai is starting to upset my stomach some.

I like to give my chai a long steep too. It also depends on how much water and cream/milk you add to it. Personally, for my size mug, I like to use 2 chai teabags. I look forward to trying some good loose leaf chai at some point. This sampler looks fun.